Syria government and Druze minority leaders announce new ceasefire as Israel continues strikes
TRANSCRIPT:
Uncertainty remains after Syrian authorities announced a new ceasefire agreement for the southern province of Sweida.
Syrian state news agency SANA is quoting a source from the Interior Ministry, who said an agreement was reached for a ceasefire in Sweida and for the establishment of security checkpoints across the city.
It followed the collapse of a short-lived truce just a day earlier to bring an end to violent sectarian clashes that are said to have claimed more than 300 lives.
That collapse prompted Israel to bomb Syria’s Defence Ministry in central Damascus, its most direct intervention in the country’s postwar transition since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
The Israeli army says it is defending Syria’s Druze minority amid days of clashes between Druze fighters and Syrian government troops.
The strikes hit the Syrian defence ministry and also near the presidential palace while a Syrian television reporter was broadcasting live on air.
"Mayar, Mayar, come here, come here."
Syrian Interior Ministry official Nabil Al-Khalidi says several people were killed.
"There was an Israeli airstrike on the ministry of defence - there was a number of martyrs and injured. Of course, there were some injured among civilians because the ministry's building is surrounded entirely by civilian buildings, of course."
Israel has redeployed an I-D-F brigade from Gaza to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, territory seized from Syria in 1967.
Citing security concerns, Israel has warned that it will not tolerate the presence of Syria's Islamist government forces in the country’s south, near its border, and has threatened to escalate attacks unless Syrian forces withdraw.
In New York, the United Nations condemned Israel's strikes and warned of further civilian suffering.
U-N spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned by the situation.
"The Secretary-General condemns Israel's escalatory airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa, and in the centre of the Syrian capital, Damascus, as well as reports of Israeli Defence Forces redeployment of forces in the Golan. He calls for an immediate cessation of all violations of serious sovereignty and territorial integrity and for respect of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement."
Meanwhile, members of Israel's Druze community staged a protest in front of the U-S Embassy in Jerusalem protesting the Trump administration's relations with Syria's Islamist president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who previously was wanted by the United States government.
President al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, was the leader of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham which was one of the main groups to oust Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Until he became Syria's president, the U-S was offering a $15 million dollar [[US$10 million]] reward for any information leading to to his capture.
Raed Mansur, a member of Israel's Druze community, is among those protesting.
"We are here in front of the American Embassy in Jerusalem, and it's the time to talk directly to the American administration saying that it's not a business, it's not a deal. You cannot make a deal with a person (Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa) that is a killer, that what he knows is only to kill people, and to kill people that are different than him."
In Washington D-C, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U-S is working behind the scenes to restore calm.
"We're going to be working on that issue as we speak. I just got off the phone with the relevant parties. They're very concerned about it. And hopefully we'll have some update s later today for you. But we're very concerned about it, we want it to stop. ... I'm sorry, we want the fighting to stop, because we had a ceasefire, overnight it broke down again. So we're talking to both sides, all the relevant sides on this and hopefully we can bring it to a conclusion. But we are very concerned."
